Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Sidekick

As you may or may not have heard Circuit City is going out of business. So I went down to the local Circuit City and picked up a new 19" Flat Screen monitor to replace my old 21" CRT. Even though the monitor was 'smaller', the screen space is much larger. I was able to increase my resolution from 1024x768 to 1440x770 (or something like that). The difference is very noticeable. The game looks 100 times better now, and I have much more screen real estate to put addons, and a much clearer view of my playing field.

I got invited to run with a bunch of friends to Naxx10 last night. This is the kind of run I have been really enjoying in this expansion. It didn't matter if we wiped 4 times, like we did to Heigan, or one-shot boss after boss, which we did as well. Everyone was having a good time, killing bosses, getting loot, and enjoying the game. I didn't manage to snag any loot because my rolling fails. My super secret plan was to get my Ret gear from 10 mans (where it wouldn't cost me any precious DKP) and my Prot gear from 25 mans. If I didn't fail at rolling, it might work out a little better, lol.

Leejenkins who organized the run decided he felt like going Ret and trying that spec out so I tanked it along with Nismo, who is a guy who likes to tank but usually goes DPS for our 25 mans. From the first boss on, he made it clear he wanted to be the 'Main Tank' for the night. I was fine with that. There was a time I would have fought for my 'right' to main tank, but it wasn't necessary.

I think just about everyone in MK knows I'm a good tank by this point. I may have finally reached that place where I don't have to prove myself to every person in our guild. I've got the reputation. I can do this.

Nismo did take to calling me his 'sidekick' which ruffled my feathers a bit, but not so much that I had to comment it about it. I tend to think of myself and my co-Tanks as equals. Maybe he didn't intend it, but calling me your 'sidekick' certainly doesn't imply you feel that way. Edit: He also seem to put Viginance on me constantly, which was a little odd. Maybe he was worried I was going to pull threat off him?

I did learn a couple of things that will help me in the future and I'll pass them along in the hopes they help you as well.

This isn't really a tip, but for Noth, I finally got down the Avenger's Shield one, and Exorcism one to pick up the Adds. I know when I do this fight on 25 man, there will be more adds, but I think I'll be okay.

For Heigan, I found that tilting my camera up and zooming all the way out, similar to what I would do for Grobbulous really helps with seeing the fire and staying on rhythm with the dance. Next time I get a shot at tanking him I'll try it and see if it helps me.

For Anub, it turns out I had the kite path wrong this whole time. I actually got a chance to watch Nismo. The path is on the very outside of the wall. You are kiting along the slime track, but you can't touch the slime at all. I thought you had to kite along in the inside edge of the slime track, but you actually have to be in the slime track. My kite path was taking Anub too close to the healers and getting them silienced, and myself killed.

All the intervene trick that Mal Katai has been using does is get the tank out of Locus Swarm faster so he doesn't eat as many ticks. I now feel completely confident I can tank this no problem.

For Gothik, I was doing the Undead side. This tip comes courtesy of Leejenkins. You set up in the left front corner, with your entire team stacked in the corner and you out in front of them. This way everything has to go through you (and your Consecrate) to get to the healers and you have plenty of time to get aggro. I actually ended up running out of mana because I wasn't taking enough damage and my Consecrate spam stopped. It cost us a mage, but we still one shot it.

The other thing I'll say after really watching Nismo is that I'm jealous of Last Stand. Ardent Defender is supposed to be our 'Last Stand' but it gets leap frogged entirely too often. What I mean by leap frogged is that the hit that kills you comes when you are out of AD range and therefore AD never reduces it. Lay On Hands is another 'Last Stand' but we have to use it reactively, instead of proactively and it won't work if we are silenced, stunned, etc. To wath Nismo be able to inflate his HP during an Enrage or Web Wrap seemed very helpful.

14 comments:

Why do you kite Anub? Just pull him off to the side and fight him there. Everyone but the MT leaves before locust and the healers heal from outside its range. Fight the adds where they spawn outside range as well. Kiting just makes the fight harder.

Honors wrote: For Anub, it turns out I had the kite path wrong this whole time.

I don't know if you've seen them yet, but TankSpot has been posting some great video guides to Naxx. Our first time on Anub'rekhan, we had the kite spot wrong also. I saw the video a few days later, and agree that it really is quite simple if you run along the outer edge.

TankSpot's Guide to Anub'rekhan is at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g47oN5snpSU

They have a lot of other great videos, and I think you'll find them a great resource, to see how someone else deals with a fight.

Protip for kiting Anub: Don't bother. With good healers you can just pull him to the middle of the "kite path" at the beginning and never move. Works on both 10 and 25. Ask for extra heals during the Locusts, but it shouldn't be a problem.

I need to get into some "fun" Naxx10 runs like that. With my limited raiding time, I've been focusing on 25s for the better gear and badges - but 10s are more intimate and better suited to joking around with friends.

Yeah, pallies HAVE to kite Anub or like honors said ya'll get silenced. We usually have a pally do the adds and a warrior or druid takes anub. That corner you are talking about for Gothik, we tried that last night and right as Gothik came down the pat BEHIND that door ran THROUGH it and wiped us. Needless to say, we aren't doing it on the left side anymore.

Vigilance also refreshes the Warrior's Taunt. So he gives you 3% damage reduction and gets infinite Taunts in exchange for 10% of your threat generation.

It's a common tactic if the other tank does a lot of threat, or can build a threat lead. My guild apparently likes having a Warrior pick up adds on Sarth-3D, because infinite Taunts makes add control easy, and the Sarth tank is building threat while the DPS is attacking other targets.

I as a fellow Paladin Tank dont move Anub either tbh... its very easy to build a massive threat lead that even with the casters continuing to DPS though the locust swarm they dont even come close to me... a quick bubble-wall just before swarm for good measure and the dmg taken looks hardly different to the dmg taken when tanking normally

I have to add also that imo there is never such a thing as a MT but tanks that have brains and have the most threat show themselves to be more suited to tanking bosses regardless of class... no point in having a tank having to hold back on dps while off tanking on a boss such as Saph or Malygos or similar... if he has more threat he's MTing imho - sure some tanks are better on some bosses, ie Paladin on Loatheb due to being block capped or a DK on Sarth 3D due to the stupid amount of CDs they have, but everything can tank everything atm, as so was the case in BC (even ph2 ROS was tanked by Paladins pre patch), but imo threat is the determining factor and if a tank has a good amount of tps I very much doubt he lacks the gear for avoidance and mitigation in that particular fight

Tell the Warrior next time that your having to hold back on the DPS without having to take RF off, i'm sure it wouldnt be the same the other way around - just makes sense for everyone to go full nuke when they can on bosses imo

"I'm kiting because if I don't I wont be able to do a single thing during locus swarm as all my abilities don't work while silenced."

So what. You already have enough agro so it is not a problem. Kiting does *nothing* for you and only introduces room for error. Just sit there like a meat puppet and let him hit you for a bit until swarm wears off.

Sorry I realize re-reading my original comment I wasn't clear. I wasn't asking why you kite because I don't know the fight. I was asking why you kite because I don't bother when I tank it, you're just making the fight harder for yourself.

There's no agro problems just sitting through the swarm if you build up enough. There's no healing problems if you don't move him. There's literally *NO* reason to kite. The only thing kiting does is introduce more room for error.

Others already said this, and this is directed to the first Anonymous unsigned post - I AM a Pally. ;) I've tanked Anub on 25-man without kiting while wearing maybe one piece of 213 gear and a couple blues. I've seen another Pally tank do it as well.

It is so totally no big deal that you will slap your forehead for ever having kited him. I've seen failed kites wipe raids, but I've yet to see a non-kiting tank die during locust swarm. Something to consider. :)

We have a warrior who is normally our "main tank" but I normally main tank Anub due to pursuit of justice and kite him around the outside of the slime like you said. I haven't tried not kiting yet, but I figure if our method always works why try to change it and risk a wipe?

I get along very well with our warrior tank and neither of us considers the other inferior. Our gear levels are very close, and in fact he always refers to me as his "twin" because our gear is so similar. Nevermind the fact that he's a tauren and I'm a blood elf lol.

Kiting Anub isnt to hard if you can do it and do it well why not, it gives you something to do apart from standing there and doesn't put as much strain on your healers even if they are good why do they have to work harder than they need to because you wont kite.Honors my ussual strat for Noth adds is to stand on the spawn location of my first add, then drop a concercrate after the adds are anounced move to your second location you should get in exo range as that add rises from the ground to tag him. By this point add ones taken a few concercrate ticks and has his agro firmly on you, leaving you HandoR, judgement and AS free for your third add, one that got into the raid or what ever else you want them for.